The French President, Emmanuel Macronand the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunakagreed today on the goal of continue military aid to Ukraine so that you are in the best situation when the conditions for a negotiation are given.
“In the short term, our will is to help Ukraine to resist,” said the French president at a press conference with the British prime minister. “Our priority is now military” until peace can be built “at the time Ukraine decides and on its own conditions,” he stressed.
Sunak pointed out that both he and Macron agree that “Ukraine has to win this war” and for this we must provide it with the means in training and teams so that “it has the strongest possible position” for the moment in which there are negotiations.
Still, Macron made it clear that “We are doing everything possible so that this war does not spread and does not become global” and that its end is sought “with the will to build a lasting and acceptable peace.”
Sunak announced last February that UK would train Ukrainian pilots in the handling of Western combat aircraft, although the delivery of the devices is not foreseen for now, and Macron said today that both governments agree on “the training of the Ukrainian military in high-value operational segments.”
The French president also responded to the Kremlin’s accusations that the West is behind the recent instability in Georgia: “There is a tendency, which is not new in the Kremlin, to consider that any response comes from an outside influence,” he said.
Rishi Sunak arrived this Friday at the Elysée Palace, where the bilateral summit with the president is being held Emmanuel Macron with the intention of “open a new chapter” in relations between the two countries.
“We want to deepen cooperation on issues that have an impact on both countries. We are two of the world’s largest economies with a global presence in the diplomatic or military field,” Sunak explained in an interview published this Friday by the newspaper “le figaro“.
He “premier” traveled to France accompanied by seven of his ministerswho will hold work meetings with their French counterparts, in what constitutes the first Franco-British summit in five years.
The visit comes just over two weeks before the king Charles III made his first state trip to France since he acceded to the throne on September 8.
Both Paris and London claim stage the thaw of relations clouded by Brexit or the so-called Australian submarine crisis, but also by the animosity towards France of Sunak’s two predecessors in Downing Street.
The Ukrainian war has served as a catalyst for this rapprochement between the two countries, which have the largest armies in Europe, and which already cooperate in various scenarios.
Sunak also highlighted the improvements in the fight against illegal immigration in the English Channelwhich both countries agreed to strengthen at the end of last year and which is expected to be solidified on a lasting basis at this ministerial summit.
The British Prime Minister, who thanked the work of the French patrol boats in those waters to prevent the arrival of emigrants on British coasts, He defended his controversial bill to fight against immigration, which, in his opinion, seeks to put an end to the mafias.
Energy cooperation is another of the points of agreement, with the construction by the French state company EDF of another nuclear power plant in Sizewell, which for the British Prime Minister illustrates the common will to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and therefore the dependence on countries like Russia.
The summit comes shortly after one of the last stumbling blocks of Brexit, the agreement on the border of Northern Irelandsomething that Sunak considers marks “a new beginning” in his relationship with the European Union.
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